Suppose your house is on fire. Everyone’s out safe and you’ve got time to run inside and grab one or two things (yeah, I know, in a real fire it’s a bad idea to go back inside for anything, but this is hypothetical, so cut me some slack). What do you go get?

For me, the answer’s both easy and obvious: I grab the two originals my sister Lori has painted for my family (the half-dozen or so prints we have of her work can be replaced).

First, there’s the painting Lori gave to Susan and me when the twins were born:

And next would be the painting she made especially for Susan upon finding Susan has cancer:

These (cameraphone) pictures don’t even come close to doing Lori’s work justice, but I wanted to show them off anyway. These are — absolutely literally — our two most-prized family possessions.

Lori painted these years and years ago, and her style has evolved quite a bit since then. Take a moment and check out the gallery on her site. Here’s one of my favorites of hers, titled “Fun Mom:”

Lori lives in Brooklyn right now, but occasionally she’ll still come to Salt Lake and do a show. When she does, all of her art sells out. Immediately.

Lori’s paintings routinely sell for $5000 – $15,000, so — when combined with the fact that this prize will be intensely personal for whoever wins it — I don’t think I’m at all going out on a limb when I say this is definitely the best prize that’s ever been part of the Team Fatty LiveStrong Challenge. Go to Jodi’s blog right now to learn how to win.

Tickets to theColbert Report?. These are otherwise impossible to get without spending some serious quality time with a scalper.

Tickets to the New York Red Carpet premier of Martin Scorsese-directed movie“Shutter Island“, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Michelle Williams. Watch this preview video and get freaked out a little bit.

No disrespect, but where did your sister get the darkness from? Lots of deep unhappy undertones, and overtones as well. The pieces in her gallery look like great art, but I couldn’t sleep at night if they hung on my walls. Maybe its just NYC.

Following in my teammate Jodi’s footsteps I will be raffling off a case of premium Northern California wine. My girlfriend Bernadette owns a wine shop, Sip!Mendocino.http://www.sipmendocino.com/ The case will contain the following wines:
Parducci Pinot Grigio
Patianna Sauvignon Blanc
Naughty Boy Chardonnay
Eaglepoint Syrah
Bells Echo Syrah
Whaler Zinfandel
Elizabeth Vineyards Zinfandel
Philo Ridge Dry Gewurztraminer
Duncan Peak Cabernet Sauvingnon
Bonterra Sauvignon Blanc
So Cab
Yorkville Cellars Rose’ of Cab Franc
The case of wine is valued at $250.
As with every Fatty raffle, to purchases a raffle ticket just donate $5 to my LiveSTRONG challenge page http://sanjose09.livestrong.org/angiegibson. If you donate $10 you get two tickets, etc.
The raffle will go from Monday 6/29 thru Friday 7/3. Again this is premium Northern California wine and I will pay for the shipping. If you have additional questions I can be reached at amg2@pge.com.
Help Team Fatty San Jose.
WIN SUSAN!!

I LOVE the piece with the woman and the high wire; what mother hasn’t felt like that?! I’m sure if these paintings were lit properly and photographed they would have a much brighter look. It’s just the camera phone.

Hi. Thank you for the kind review, Eld. I’m happy to be the originator of your prized possesions, my brother. You were my first buyer, remember?

The work is often dark, and mostly funny. To me. Which might mean, not funny after all, which makes the whole thing hilarious, but in a behind-my-back way which is the best hilarity ever. Certainly a niche, although not niche unique to crazy old New York. But so far no chain hotels or restaurants have expressed interest.